Some Wordpress Plugins and Services I Recommend
April 30, 2008 | By Jason Kaneshiro | Filed Under Blog Design, Features, Technology, WordPress
Over the past few months I’ve added some new plugins and services to my blog at Webomatica that are solid and useful enough to recommend. All are working great with WordPress 2.5.
- Democracy: This creates polls on your WordPress blog, either in the sidebar or in a post. Polls are fun for users and add another angle on your blog’s subject matter. It’s easy to set up questions and choices and track the results within the WordPress admin. Right now, I’m running a Battlestar Galactica poll and it’s working well.
- Disqus: This is a replacement comment system for your blog. It provides many features that would be difficult to do with plugins alone, namely threaded comments, comment ratings, avatars, and associated sidebar widgets. Moderation of comments is easier (including reply by email), and I have much less spam.
- InstantUpgrade: This plugin allows you to upgrade your WordPress installation with one click. Although it’s in beta, I just used it to upgrade to 2.5.1 with no problems. Remember to back up first, though!
- WP Super Cache: This is a souped-up version of WP Cache which may seem like overkill for most blogs, but it’s always good to be prepared. It basically takes load off your server by storing static, cached versions of recently visited pages, allowing for higher traffic.
- RSS Footer: This plugin inserts a “credit” line of text - including a link if you want it - to the start or end of your articles within the RSS feed. This is a neat trick if your content is being re-published elsewhere without your knowledge - you may at least want author credit or a link back to your blog.
- SimplePie Core and SimplePie Plugin for WordPress: SimplePie gives you the ability to parse XML feeds using templates for display on your blog. That sounds pretty obscure, but I’m using it to display my FriendFeed activity in my sidebar. Using SimplePie gives me more control over exactly what parts of the feed to display.
I’ve provided links above if you want to check them out yourself.
About the author: Jason Kaneshiro is a relative "newbie" blogger and the author of Webomatica, covering technology, movies, and music. He lives in the Bay Area and works in web / instructional design in San Francisco.
Comments
3 Responses to “Some Wordpress Plugins and Services I Recommend”
Leave a Reply
Sponsors
News
UK companies aren’t clear on new “fake blogging” lawsJuly 4, 2008 | By Andy Merrett | Leave a Comment
British companies which pretend to blog as ordinary members of the public, or post multiple positive reviews as if from consumers, are now breaking UK law, yet many don’t know anything about the new legislation, according to Brands2Life.
Its director, Gareth Thomas, said that, “Most people don’t know about this law,” adding, “there is a misconception [...]
Berocca sends out Blogger Relief Packs
July 4, 2008 | By Andy Merrett | 2 Comments
The concept may not be that new, but a couple of weeks ago a colleague introduced me to Berocca’s Blogger Relief Pack. I signed up with one of my blogs, and yesterday received the pack.
While it’s not the complete answer to managing the stress of blogging, a tube of Berocca and a nice glass to [...]
ScribeFire 2.2.8 Released
July 4, 2008 | By Thord Daniel Hedengren | Leave a Comment
ScribeFire is a popular desktop blogging application hosted in a Firefox extension. Version 2.2.8 includes fixes and some brush-ups. The extension is free to download from Mozilla Add-ons, and works with both Firefox 2 and 3.
Two New b5media Blogs Launched
July 4, 2008 | By Thord Daniel Hedengren | Leave a Comment
Another two b5media blogs launched recently. Marye Audet edits Simply Home Remedies, which is about just that. This from the launch post:
For the past 20 years or so my family has lived without the assistance of commercial medicines or doctors, except for things like broken arms and emergency surgeries on retro-pharyngeal abscesses. You know, the [...]
Hitting the Frontpage of Digg
July 3, 2008 | By Matt Craven | 1 Comment
Skelliewag takes a look at playing the odds and trying to “win” with Digg - a great article with some fantastic tips on how to promote your site using Digg.
Most bloggers would love their content to hit the front page of Digg. Unfortunately, most of those bloggers are never able to experience the huge spike [...]
Firefox 3 Plugin Roundup
July 3, 2008 | By Matt Craven | Leave a Comment
Now that Firefox 3 has been out for more than a week - and has set a new Guinness World Record for the most downloads in a single day - several websites have begun recapping the plugin/addon situation for Firefox.
BSPCN outlines the 30 “Must Have” Firefox Extensions, including del.icio.us toolbar, Foxmarks, and Greasemonkey.
PC World looks [...]
Patrons
Sponsored Links
Recent listings from Blogger Jobs
Weekly Bloggers for Hire 41Want your profile here? Read this earlier post for more info. Remember: please follow the instructions there. One-liners will be ignored and have be [...]
Health & Medical Writers Wanted
We got this from Geek Health: Health and Medical writers are currently required to help expand a rather young health/medical blog. Bloggers are free [...]
Project Manager Wanted
We got this through email: Project Manager: Online/Blog Community Experience Local Washington Candidates Only Please no Sub Contracting Company resp [...]
Ghost Writer Needed for Internet Marketing Blog
We got this posting for the Blueliner blog: We are looking for a writer that has in-depth knowledge of the internetmarketing industry and can write [...]
Four Blog-Related Openings
This quartet is courtesy of our sister site, Performancing.com: Travel Writers Needed: Budget travel and Cancun — “I seem to find it di [...]
More at Blogger Jobs
Contributors
- Andrew G. Rosen
- Andy Merrett
- Anne Helmond
- Arvind Satyanarayan
- Chris Garrett
- Darnell Clayton
- David Krug
- David Peralty
- J. Angelo Racoma
- Jason Kaneshiro
- Jonathan Bailey
- Lorelle VanFossen
- Matt Craven
- Thord Hedengren
- Valeria Maltoni
Our Blog Metrics
Recommended
I like Democracy, does a great job.
Super Cache rocks but be careful, it doesn’t yet play well with Spam Karma2 or Bad Behavior. Of course, you could also say that they’re not playing with *it* :) That’s the main reason I’ve stuck to wp-cache2 for now, still very trusty.
Disqus, seem interesting but I don’t like giving up a part of my blog to any company. In this market with companies going and coming… I personally, can’t trust that this company will be around for the long haul.
Call me a control freak, but I’d rather have anything to do with my site, especially something as important as comments,,, hosted ON my site.
The Plug-in I used so far is the RSS Footer and it really helps me on those people who tries to dupe my content.